We walked into a Chinese restaurant. It was full house. The waiters were squeezing through the gaps around the restaurant. The restaurant was noisy as people were eating and talking loudly over the table.

We were seated at the table which we had booked earlier. The waitress took our orders.

We ordered our usual dishes: curry vegetables, sweet potato leaves, steam fish, beancurd, and egg foo young.

While waiting for our food, I can’t help to notice the following.

1. Not not serve garlic & chilli

A good meal is not without the condiments. I’m not talking about the salt and pepper. Not even the ginger. Don’t pass the ketchup. Skip the wasabi.

Sometimes only the soy sauce is present on the table.

We are talking about the garlic and chilli. The garlic and chilli have to be minced and served in separate saucers.

Garlic adds flavour in the blend white rice and chilli spices up the food.

2. Not serve the drinks after the rice

The drinks – be it hot or cold – have to always be served before the rice.

We don’t want to start our meal with a dry throat. Gulping down the first spoonful of rice on a dry throat is a harsh experience. The rice can be stuck in the throat and we have to force it down to the stomach.

Its healthy to quench our thirsts after waiting a good 15 minutes for the food to be served.

3. Not serve the curry last

Any dish can come last, except the curry!

The curry is the one dish which has to be served first after the rice. We don’t want the curry to be served last, when we’ve finished eating the other dishes and the rice.

Even if the curry is served last, there won’t be much space in the stomach. There has to be extra space for desserts.

Hence, the curry has to be served first with the rice. Curry goes well with rice. Without the rice, it is just missing something important.

4. Not a spoon for a spinach

The spinach is served. A spoon is given to pick the spinach from the dish.

Bear in mind that though spinach is a vegetable, it is not like other vegetables – french beans, tauge, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, etc. These vegetables are for the picking, whereas spinach is not!

Spinach is an interwoven and interlocking strands of greens. There are a lot of gaps in between.

It is somewhat like noodles and spaghetti. Strings of greens attached to each other with gaps in between. A fork is needed to pick through and up the spinach.

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